Pimp My Ride was a TV show produced by MTV. Each episode consists of taking one car in poor condition and restoring it, as well as customizing it. The original American version was hosted by rapper Xzibit (one episode featured guest host Chamillionaire). Recently, MTV2 has begun airing episodes from Pimp My Ride UK hosted by DJ Tim Westwood, which features cars being customised in the UK, and Pimp My Ride International, featuring cars in central Europe, hosted by hip hop artists Fat Joe and Lil' Jon, as well as the related CMT series Trick My Truck.
This show picked young car owners living in Los Angeles or elsewhere in Southern California and customises their vehicles at no cost to them. An episode of Pimp My Ride generally begins with the participant showing his or her car off, and convincing MTV why it needs to be "pimped". After this segment, the host (normally rapper Xzibit, but occasionally guest hosts such as Chamillionaire) shows up at the participant's house, takes a look at the car himself, makes wisecracks about the particular things that are wrong with it, and promises the owner a complete makeover of the vehicle.
After examining the car, Xzibit takes it to a custom body shop (West Coast Customs (WCC) in Seasons 1–4; replaced by Galpin Auto Sports (GAS) starting Season 5), where the shop team generally replaces most of the components and rebuilds the interior and exterior from scratch, and in special cases the engine too.
Each car was custom modified, tailored to the personalities and interests of the owners. For example, a Need for Speed: Underground fan had his car painted to look like one specially customized in the Need for Speed: Underground 2 game, while a bowler had a ball spinner installed in his trunk, and a surfer got a clothes dryer in the back of his Volkswagen Bus. Work usually includes new paint and accessories (such as racing car seats, a spoiler, short shifter, Weighted Gear Knob, LED head lights and tail lights, etc.) , chrome, tires and wheels, as well as internal electronics (DVD players, video games, and large TFT screens). While most changes are only cosmetic, and mechanical work is generally only done to enable the car to run, the show has sometimes replaced engines. Both WCC and GAS are well-known for putting their own whimsical touches in their work, such as the aforementioned dryer, or an electric fireplace in the trunk of another vehicle.
At the end of the show, the car is revealed to its owner, as well as all the details of the renovation and the custom features; in addition, the participant is usually given a gift somehow related to the car or the owner's hobby.
There is a lot of humor involved from the body shop team and Xzibit himself, much of it self-deprecating.
While the authenticity is debatable among viewers, Pimp My Ride is heavily sponsored by companies and only helps certain people who have applied to be on the show and are within driving distance of the shop.
Seasons 1–4
Much of the appeal of the show comes from the personalities involved. The WCC employees are an electric mix of outgoing personalities, such as:
* Owner Ryan (who was preceded by the good-natured manager Q)
* The heavily pierced tire-specialist Alex
* Tough-looking interior and fabric maven Ish
* Electronics (and outrageous engineering) expert Mad Mike
* The appropriately named Big Dane
* Paint Guys Aren, Jimmy, Buck, 2Shae, and Luis. The latter carried on into the following seasons.
After the third season, WCC manager "Q" announced that he would not be willing to take a role in the show anymore. Q cited a desire to expand the company's business with a customs shop in St. Louis, Missouri called Coast 2 Coast Customs. Ryan Friedlinghaus, the owner of WCC, was featured in Season 4 as the "lead" for discussions on what customizing will be done on the incoming cars.
[edit] Seasons 5–6
Beginning with the fifth season, the show moved to another garage, Galpin Auto Sports (GAS), as Ryan, the WCC Owner, moved his shop to Corona, California and said that he yanked the shop's participation because he thought Pimp was too gimmicky with its ugly duckling-to-swan format.[1] He has signed a deal with another television production company for cable channel TLC, where they made Street Customs, which is now out of production; it is said to have a more realistic portrayal of how a custom car shop really operates.[2] However, the show retains Mad Mike (who has quit at WCC and signed at GAS), now dubbed a "car customization specialist", but he retains himself as an electrician. The new cast includes the employees of GAS:
* Owner - Beau,
* Electronics Expert And "The Wizard of Wiring" Mad Mike,
* The Wheels & Tires Specialist - Gyasi,
* Paint - Luis,
* Accessories - "Diggity" Dave
* Fabrication/Car Audio/Security/Motorization - Jason
* Fabrication/Design - Zee
* Upholstry - Rick
Replacement vehicles
On only three occasions — all season finales — did the show not "pimp" the original automobile:
* In the first instance,[3] the car to be pimped was actually two halves of two Ford Escorts welded together in a "cut and shut" job; the car was considered unsafe and replaced with a Scion xB.
* In the second instance[4] the participant was studying to be an auto mechanic, and WCC decided to let him "pimp" his car as a study project, giving him a Toyota 4Runner
* In the most recent such incident,[5] Xzibit felt the owner's car, a Nissan Pulsar, was not worth fixing, as heat from the car's engine was leaking into the cab. They had switched it with a Ford Mustang.
In all these instances, the vehicles of the participants were replaced with brand new cars, with extensive modifications made to customize each new car for the owner.